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Apoorv Darshan
Apoorv Darshan

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The most private screenshot tool is the one with no server

Most "privacy-friendly" apps still phone home. A backend for accounts. An analytics SDK "to improve the product." A crash reporter that quietly ships context.

I built TetherShot the boring way: there's nothing to phone home to.

It's a tiny macOS menu-bar app that captures pixel-perfect iPhone screenshots (1179x2556 native) straight into a folder you choose, plus your clipboard.

The entire data flow:

  • iPhone → Mac over USB (native AVFoundation) or local Wi-Fi (Apple's RemoteXPC tunnel)
  • Screenshot → folder on your disk
  • That's it. No third hop.

What's deliberately missing:

  • No account or login
  • No analytics or telemetry
  • No servers — the internet is never in the loop
npm install -g tethershot
tethershot install
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Because there's no backend, there's no breach surface, no data to subpoena, nothing to "accidentally log." Privacy stops being a promise in a TOS and becomes a property of the architecture.

And it's MIT open source, so "trust me" isn't required — you can read every line.

Code: https://github.com/apoorvdarshan/TetherShot

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